Rise of the Hexes
by kuroyafirenight
Summary: Takes place shortly after book three ghosts, minus the epilogue. Based on Hex trilogy by Rhiannon Lassiter. Raven returns. Rated for later chapters. RavKez pairing.


(A/N) Usually I write my stories in notepad. But with this Hex fanfiction I'm writing, I think I'll need some of the features that only Word can offer. Hex, by Rhiannon Lassiter, is my favorite book. This fic takes place after book 3, Ghosts, as if the epilogue hadn't happened. So it's shortly after Raven disappeared into the Net, destroying Kalden. BTW, however irrational it seems, I'm a fan of the KezRaven pairing, for some strange reason unbeknownst to me. I don't care if you think Cloud would be better. I don't trust him, and I still haven't forgiven him.

"spoken words"

_thought words_

** computer words **

_**radio words**_

Chapter 1: Raven's Return

**_We're picking up heightened activity in our computer system,_** said a voice from the intercom next to Kez's terminal. He was in his bedroom at the Ghost HQ. Kez looked confused. **_No one in our building is using it. Maybe a Hex is trying to break in. I'll check it out,_** Kez replied into the intercom. He started typing commands into the computer, but it wasn't responding. Suddenly it flared white, and Kez pushed himself away from the desk, and since he was on a rolling desk chair, he slid away from the screen. There was a flash of color, and then suddenly he saw someone facedown on the floor in front of him. Curious, Kez stood up and walked closer to the person, who appeared to be unconscious. He turned the person over so that they were lying on their back. He very suddenly recognized the person.

"Raven!" he exclaimed. Sure enough, the ebony-haired Hex who had disappeared into the network, was here. Alive and mostly intact. She looked extremely thin and pale. "Raven," Kez said while shaking her slightly. "Raven, wake up. Raven?"

Raven's eyes slowly flickered open. Kez gasped. Her eyes had changed color. They were now almost metallic, and reflected every color, depending on what angle you looked at them. "Kez…" Raven rasped. She hadn't had any food or water while she was in the net.

"Hang on Raven. I'll get you some water," Kez told her, and ran to the nearest nutromac. He raced back with the water. He helped Raven sit up, and pressed the cup of water to her mouth. She started drinking the water, and soon the cup was empty. She coughed a couple times.

"I haven't been gone long, have I?" Raven asked, her voice still rather rough. "Only a couple days. We all thought you had…died. We didn't know where you were. I thought I'd…we'd lost you," Kez replied. Raven was too weak to respond, but she nodded.

"You should rest. We haven't gone into your room since you've been gone. Do you want me to carry you there?"

Raven shook her head no. She summoned the last of her strength and said, "Can you hide me till I recover?" Then she fainted.

Kez didn't know what to do. He wasn't sure where to hide her, and he was unused to seeing her this weak and vulnerable. She was usually so tough and cold. _I guess she can just stay in here. They'll notice if her room starts being used again,_ Kez thought. He lifted her now terribly thin body off the floor, and carried her to his bed. He set her carefully down, and put the covers over her. "Goodnight Raven. Sweet dreams," Kez whispered, and returned to his computer. Suddenly an alert window popped into the screen, telling Kez to report to the briefing room. With one last look at Raven, sound asleep on his bed, he left.

Raven woke up an hour after he left. She sat up, disoriented for only a moment. Her body was still weak from her ordeal, so she laid back down. She caught the scent of the sheets. _Smells like Kez. Not unpleasant…_ she thought. She sat up again, feeling a little better, and managed to stand up. She stretched like a cat, and began doing some stretches to loosen up her muscles. She could feel she was on the road to recovery. After her stretches, she wandered over to where Kez kept his music. Most of his music seemed to be the kind she liked, and she decided to play some of it. She found a 21st century band called "Evanescence," and listened to it. It was one of her favorites.

Boredom began to set in. Usually she would just enter the net when she was bored, but she was reluctant to return to the very thing which had imprisoned her. So she found a drawing screen lying on a shelf, and began sketching with the attached stylus. She didn't pay attention to what she was drawing. She'd never really drawn much before. After 15 minutes, she looked at what she'd drawn. "Kez…" she said quietly, looking at the picture. It was a picture of Kez holding her when she'd first returned from the net, the way she imagined it. "Now why did I draw that?" she asked herself aloud. She saved it into the drawing screen's memory bank, and refreshed the screen so that it was blank again. _I wonder what Kez draws…_ she wondered, and tried to open his saved files.

psword? 

Raven considered using her abilities as a Hex to open the files, then decided not to. Kez wanted to keep them private, and she'd let him.

Raven walked over to a mirror, and looked at her reflection, which she hadn't seen in days. She gasped when she saw her eyes. _Such a strange color. Colors. What happened to my eyes? Maybe they have a small piece of the net in them now,_ she thought. She wrinkled her face in disgust as she looked at her days-old clothing. _I need to change them…but if I go into my room, everyone will know I'm here, and I don't want to mess with other people right now. Kez is enough. I guess he wouldn't mind if I wore some of his clothing._ Raven opened his clothing drawers and found boxers, pants, shorts, shirts, and belts. Raven grinned to herself as she picked up the first pair of boxers. They were purple silk boxers with little flying ravens all over them. She shed her dirty clothes and put on the boxers. Then she put on a plain black shirt. She dumped her dirty clothes into his hamper.

Suddenly she heard someone coming down the hall outside Kez's room. She heard a code typed into the number pad on the wall next to the door, and the door slid open. Kez walked in and the door slid shut behind him, then he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Raven. He glanced down at his boxers, and blushed bright red. Raven smirked.

"Why do you have boxers with little ravens all over them?" Raven asked, still smirking.

(A/N) There's the end of chapter one.


End file.
